


The Robin

by orphan_account



Category: Batman (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe, First Meetings, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-10
Updated: 2018-09-10
Packaged: 2019-07-10 12:09:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15949058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: So, Tim was bored, that wasn’t new. What was new, however, was the unfairly attractive man who had been pacing back and forth outside in the rain, shouting into his phone for the past ten minutes. Tim knew it was ten minutes, almost exactly, because he had been shamelessly staring at him since he walked through the hotel courtyard-at half one in the morning, intriguing in itself-carrying what looked like a file box.---or, y'know, literally just fluff set in a hotel for some reason





	The Robin

**Author's Note:**

> hi! this is only the second thing i've ever written, so i hope it's not like scarily bad and/or ooc. it's also completely plotless?? but i love these boys and if i didn't post it i'd just end up deleting it so i figured why not i guess

It had been two hours and ten minutes since Tim last had an excuse to get up and stretch his legs, and not a single person had come in the door for the past three and a half. Night shifts at the check-in desk were never interesting anyway, but today had been really raising the bar for monotony.

So, Tim was bored, that wasn’t new. What was new, however, was the unfairly attractive man who had been pacing back and forth outside in the rain, shouting into his phone for the past ten minutes. Tim knew it was ten minutes, almost exactly, because he had been shamelessly staring at him since he walked through the hotel courtyard -at half one in the morning, intriguing in itself- carrying what looked like a file box.

The guy didn’t exactly look like their usual business type, either. (With his leather jacket and boots, he seemed like he’d feel much more at home in the bar down the road than in the courtyard of a primarily corporate hotel.) But he wasn’t acting like one of the few drunks or troublemakers they’d get on the weekends. In fact, despite his obvious anger, he seemed completely at ease, even with the rain coming down heavier by the minute. 

The cigarette in his hand was consistently dropping ash as he gestured angrily, and Tim found himself strangely mesmerised by the tense line of his shoulders and the almost graceful way he pivoted on the spot to emphasize whatever it was he was saying to his unseeing audience. 

The sound of the help-desk phone ringing next to him quickly (rudely) broke Tim out of his staring match with Angry Attractive Man’s back, and instantly brought back his unwelcome and seemingly endless boredom as he went through the motions of taking down a mid-morning wake up call, before ending the conversation with well-practised pleasantries. 

He sighed and moved to stretch his legs, but a throat being cleared caught his attention.

“Welcome to The Robin. How may I- oh,” He stopped for a second, stuck briefly in the surprisingly happy-looking gaze of Angry Attractive Man from outside, before his brain kicked back into gear, “um, how may I help you today?” 

Not-so-angry-anymore Angry Attractive Man grinned--his smile as annoyingly attractive as the rest of him--before placing the box he’d been carrying (substantially wetter than cardboard probably should be) on to the edge of the desk and leaning on his forearms. Leaving Tim to grimace slightly at the water pooling across the various leaflets and information packets spread across the counter.

“Well I was hoping for a room, if you have any spare?”

“Right, yes,” Tim said, and pulled up their listings, “We have a double, some twins, and the honeymoon sweet, if any of those work for you?”

“Hm, well as tempting as the honeymoon sweet sounds, I think I’ll stick with a double. Thank you-” he flicked his gaze to his name tag, “-Tim.”

“No problem,” Tim said, wishing more than ever that he had some coffee left to clear his stuck throat. “Cash or card, and how long will you be staying with us?” 

“Card--thank you. And two nights. Three including tonight,” He paused briefly, “Tim, Tim. Short for Timothy?”

Tim paused where he was grabbing a keycard, looking up at the man as he leant practically his entire upper body on the desk, “I-yes? But I prefer Tim,” He gestured to his badge, “Obviously.”

“I suppose that’s fair, Timmy,” He smiled again, this time at Tim’s poorly concealed grimace, before pulling his card from the reader, and picking his box back up from the desk. Not seeming worried in the slightest at its nearly non-existent structural integrity. “Well, you have most definitely improved my night.”

Tim felt his face flare with heat and hoped against all hopes that he hadn’t gone as red as he felt.

“I- right. Thank you, it’s nice to meet you, too, Mr. Todd-”

“Jason, call me Jason.”

“-Jason. Your room number is 304, a-and I hope you have a nice stay.”

“I’m sure I will, thank you.”

Jason kept his gaze on Tim as he turned toward the elevator. Calling out, “Have a good night, Tim!” before leaving. Throwing one more disgustingly attractive smile Tim’s way as the doors closed.

\---  
“He cannot have been that attractive, Tim!” 

Tim sighed and pushed his head further into his arms, “He was though! He was completely, horrifyingly, attractive,” He sat back as Steph handed him a plate stacked scarily high with pancakes. 

“And-!” he continued, slightly muffled with food, “He was exactly my type, which, aren’t there laws against that? There should be laws against that.”

“What would that law even be? ‘No making Timothy Jackson Drake flustered, because he doesn’t like it, so there’?” She slid into the booth across from him, looking way too amused for five a.m.

“Shut up, you’re the worst. And honestly, people just shouldn’t be allowed to be that attractive ever. It’s unfair, and I couldn’t even flirt because I was at work, so-” he waves his fork in a vague circle, “-double unfair.”

“Well at least you had some nice eye-candy, for once,” She paused, “unless there’s something you want to tell me about that ‘type’ of yours?”

“Ugh, god. I’m too tired to even be grossed out,”

“Really?” She said, pouting.

“…No. The images in my head are suitably disgusting.” 

He needed better friends.  
\---  
Unfortunately for Tim’s continued sanity, Jason seemed to be at the reception everyday for various reasons. And unfortunately for Tim’s newly minted plan (after three days of flustered half-flirting) of just staying out of his way, he only noticed Jason coming towards the desk once it was too late to duck out. 

After a moment of feeling vaguely frozen, he pasted on his best customer service smile—closed mouth, barely there, but wide enough to not seem rude—and stood to greet him. Maybe Steph was right, maybe he wouldn’t seem as attractive the more Tim was exposed to him at normal times of the day instead of oh-god-why-am-awake o'clock in the morning.

“Good morning, -Jason?” He said like he hadn’t been obsessing since they met, “how can I be of help today?”

Jason smiled, and Tim wanted to scream. Steph had been wrong, Steph had been so wrong. If anything, Jason seemed even more attractive the more they spoke, and Tim was sorely tempted to stomp his feet and whine at the injustice.

“I’m surprised you remember my name, Tim. You must really like me!” Despite the joking he seemed genuinely pleased, and Tim mentally scrambled for any response to distract from the redness that must’ve been creeping onto his face already, before Jason continued, “I’d actually like to ask for a favor, if you don’t mind?”

“Uh, I mean. It depends what it is?” Tim said, vaguely worried. Jason had seemed nice so far (seemed attractive, his brain corrected without permission, with his secret Star Wars love, and deep appreciation for good literature that was the bane of Tim's existence), but it definitely wouldn’t be the first time a guest had asked him for something decidedly _not_ on the room service menu, only to be quickly and concisely rebuffed. 

Jason, apparently oblivious to his hesitance, leaned his forearms on the desk before crowding in close to Tim, and whispering, 

“I really need the wi-fi password.”

And Tim felt himself laugh before he could stop it. It was only one, loud, probably unattractive snort but it brought a delighted smile to Jason’s face. Truly, it was the best smile he’d given Tim so far, eyes crinkled so deeply they looked closed. Like he got genuine happiness at causing someone else’s. He bounced on his toes a few times as he stood up, hands in his pockets, looking incredibly pleased with himself, and—fuck. Just-. Fuck.

Tim was so fucked.  
\--

He was getting ready to pack up that night when he saw Jason again (almost four hours later and all the grumpier for it) but despite his slightly work-soured mood, Tim couldn’t help perking up. 

“Good afternoon, Jason. I’m just about to get off shift, but can I try to help if it’s something quick.”

The smile Jason had as he approached widened, but he seemed almost nervous as he crossed his arms and leaned against the desk. His foot tapping slightly out of rhythm against the floor.

“Tim! Just the man I was looking for,”

He was dressed closer to the businessman Tim assumed he was, that day. Though he still wasn’t wearing a tie. Briefly, Tim thought that he could never look as good in a _full_ suit as Jason managed to look in just shirt and slacks. The muscles in his arms looked exquisite. With his sleeves rolled to his elbows and his deep skin playing so beautifully against the crisp white of his shirt, Tim found it difficult to look away. 

He quickly realised he must’ve missed something as Jason began fidgeting and apologising.

“I-What, sorry? I don’t think I heard you.” His couldn’t believe he’d got so distracted. His face must have been cherry red, it definitely felt as though it may never recover at this point.

“No, no! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable, I swear-”

Tim was officially confused. He waved a hand in front of Jason’s face, trying to get him to stop talking for just a second, as he apologised repeatedly, looking vaguely red himself.

“Jaso-”

“-and I totally wasn’t trying to be creepy, I just thought that you might-”

“Jason!” The raise in Tim’s voice seemed to be enough to break through the tirade of apologies that Tim had previously only heard _himself_ manage to spew in such a short amount of time, and even he’d only managed that level of hysteria once. (It was when he was nine. He’d accidentally knocked a vase over during a dinner party his mother had been planning for months, and he’s still never felt more embarrassed and terrified in his life.)

“Jason, I genuinely didn’t hear what you said. I was just, um-” he cleared his throat, “distracted. With, um, making sure I had everything. What was it you said?”

“Oh,” If anything Jason’s own blush seemed to get slightly darker. Before he visibly pulled himself together and re-crossed his arms from the frantic waving they’d been doing seconds before, “I-uh. I asked if you’d want to get a drink. Tonight. With me, that is. If you’d like to get a drink with me,” 

Tim’s eyes went wide as Jason stood there looking as though he’d like the ground to swallow him whole. But despite his very visible embarrassment, he seemed completely genuine, and suddenly the earlier nervousness made sense. 

“Wow, I-okay. That was not what I was expecting I just thought you’d lost the password or something, wow,” Tim felt a smile break across his face. It was a very distant sibling to his usual work smile in that it was completely genuine, pushing dimples into his cheeks and probably leaving him resembling a chipmunk, “Yeah, I’d like that. A lot, actually”

“Wait, seriously? After I fu- messed, messed up asking you that badly?” 

“Yeah, Jason. I’d really like to go somewhere with you, but I don’t drink. So maybe we could make it pizza? There’s a great place down the road, I’d just need to change out of these clothes.”

All the tension left Jason’s body in one breath as he smiled, nodding and reaching for the guest pen and one of the leaflets scattered across the desk, “Sounds great to me, Timmy!” 

“Ugh, don’t make me change my mind,” Tim said, but he was still smiling as Jason handed over an ad for the gym across the street, his number written large and messy in the blank space on the edge.

“You would never! You like me too much and you know it,” Jason said. His smirk was almost arrogant, but his eyes were too soft and happy for Tim to even keep faking annoyance. Instead he tucked the pamphlet into his bag and walked out from behind the desk.

“If that’s what you’d like to think, then I guess I can’t stop you,” They both made their way to the entrance door, and Tim sighed, “but we’ll have to see how you like it when I start calling you Mr. Todd.”

Jason gasped, loud and dramatic as he held the door for Tim, “You wound me, Tim! But we both know you’re too kind to do something so mean.”

Tim couldn’t help but laugh at the ridiculous faux-hurt face Jason was putting on, stepping closer to him and nudging Jason’s shoulder with his own as they walked toward the parking lot, “Try me, _Mr. Todd,_ ”

The air thickened and time stuttered around them as Jason’s eyes shifted hot and intense, crawling their way slowly across every inch of Tim’s face. 

“Gladly, _Timmy._ ”

**Author's Note:**

> hi, hello, hey there, howdy, thank you for reading. i apologise. 
> 
> also i did my best to edit this but i suck lmao (also i'm not american so i apologise if the language seems really stiff or weird!!) okay i'm just gonna post this now before i change my mind


End file.
